Happy Mother’s Day! I got an early Mother’s Day gift two weeks ago when my son and his wife followed me walking into my home right after my church services. I knew they were coming from Texas so that he could graduate from UVU but I thought they would arrive on Monday, the following day. What a nice surprise! We had a delightful time together celebrating for over a week. Brandon Sanderson was they keynote speaker at the commencement. How positively Providential as Marilla of Green Gables would say. My son loves Brandon Sanderson so that was perfect! Actually three of my sons and one of my daughters love all his stuff. We enjoyed his speech. It was wonderful to attend the Saratoga Spring Temple open house with my son and his wife, attend the Provo Temple to do proxy baptisms with them, and play board games with them in the middle of the day. We will miss them! They left yesterday to go back to their home in Texas after dropping some flowers off for me for an early Mother’s Day gift.

Familysearch is celebrating mothers and Mother’s Day this month of May with lots of video classes about finding mothers in your family tree. I was thrilled to find a class by Dr. Astrid Tuminez, president of UVU. I got to hear her speak at the UVU commencement exercises over a week ago. She gave a delightful speech involving her own motherhood experience, after introducing her daughter, who was graduating that night, along with my son. You can see her in the photo above, in the middle. Over here you can watch a speech she gave at BYU last year about her journey of faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also, you can watch her Familysearch presentation, called “Women Warriors,” over here.

Some of theses classes about women/mothers in genealogy are already available to watch, from previous years of RootsTech. Others will be available starting May 23. Go here and scroll down to watch the ones already available, and then on Tuesday May 23, you watch the ones that will launch on that day.

Mothers a source of infinite strength, when they are connected to Jesus. It’s amazing to think of how we each have so many mothers in our family trees. As we learn their stories, we can gain more strength and knowledge to enjoy the journey of life.